When I was in the first grade, I went to an
after-school program at the Jewish Community Center in my home town of Santa
Monica, California. In the lobby,
they had a large banner soliciting donations to the United Jewish Appeal that
read “Give ‘Til It Hurts.” I
didn’t know what it was about, and found the whole thing vaguely
disturbing. Whenever possible, I
would navigate around the lobby to avoid looking at it. Several months later it
was replaced with a similar banner-- same font, same logo-- that read “Give ‘Til
It Feels Good.” “Freakin’ adults,”
I thought. “Why does everything
have to be so confusing?”